De-blog

I haven't posted in almost a month, which is madness, but then, my work schedule has been full to busting. Between teaching for the Open University (three assignments to grade within a month) and preparing ten separate publications (one of them an anthology) for November/December releases, I've stopped only to sleep...and to win NaNoWriMo by the skin of my teeth. And I wrote a Christmas novella, which is out next week (15th December) - more on that next time. For now, you can find out more and/or (preferably and) preorder it via the links on this page: Of The Bauble (Beaten Track)   So...all of that means I've missed the Wednesday WIPpets and the Rainbow Snippets for ages . It's about sharing, and I didn't have time to fulfil my part in that, but I'm hoping to get back on track over the next few weeks. Well, I'm hoping to finish writing Reunions and do some reading for pleasure, actually. I also have a few editor reviews to catch up on (as i...

November 30th: it's a strange old day. The wind is starting to gust and darkness is descending, even though it is mid afternoon. In our family, Christmas starts on December 1st, with the tree and decorations in place on the first Sunday of the month. I have an extensive collection of Christmas socks, and tomorrow I get to wear the new pair I bought last year. There's no rhyme or reason to all of this. It's simply a case of tradition. Every year, as I leave November behind, I feel a sense of something beginning. I love Christmas: the build-up; the preparation; the excitement. Yet today, for the first time, I am sad that November is coming to a close, for it is the end of my first NaNoWriMo . It marks the return to reality. However, I have no intention of lamenting this event, for it has been the best thing I have done in a long time. I place it alongside my children and my degree in the sense of achievement and self I have gained from it. As the clock strikes midnight to...

No time to stay, I have a novel to finish. Yes people, I have a new addiction, but this one is just perfect, for several reasons. Firstly, I have been sucked into a void over the past few weeks, one where deadlines and dates have ceased to have meaning, no-one has been cracking the whip in my direction, or indeed when they have it's not been cracked hard enough. No deadlines equals no progress or achievement. That's shockingly how this cookie crumbles. Secondly, I am a writer. There is a passion within me that just needs to put down words. Half the time I strangle my own creativity by being a petulant and indulgent self editor. Take that away and I go free-form, Beat, take the story where the story takes me. Admittedly right now that does appear to be into romance (uggh!), but who cares? Life is romance: love, sex, infatuation, lust. There's also some stuff to do with birth and death, biological functionality that we still somehow manage to romanticise. Thirdly, I a...